


With our final breath, we'll fight to the death

by nerdbeyondlimits



Series: The tale of Keith and Lance [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Lance, Happy Ending, Head Injury, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Major Character Injury, Pidge is the wingman, cryo sleep, direct continuation of You stared at my lips and i could already feel your kiss, distress beacon, i'm sure loads of you searched for that specific tag, subarachnoid hemorrhage, you get the shiz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 11:05:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15629388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdbeyondlimits/pseuds/nerdbeyondlimits
Summary: Rushing out on a mission without having had the time to tell Keith his true feelings, Lance could have never guess he might not have the time to.Direct continuation of You stared at my lips and I could already feel you kiss. I suggest you read that one first.





	With our final breath, we'll fight to the death

**Author's Note:**

> Two works in one day? I'm spoiling you. Anyways, I'm not an expert at brain injuries and I literally just researched it for this fic, so if anything is inaccurate, you know... just ignore it;) And shoutout to Clarakluk because they got so happy when I said I was uploading today:) 
> 
> Enjoy the read!
> 
> Title from the song Soldiers by Otherwise

_Previously:_

_Lance drew in a deep breath. Now was the time. This was it, now was the time. He was going to bring up a hand to Keith's shoulder, tell him that he wanted to show him something and then they would walk to the star deck, where Lance would finally make his confession. His hand landed on Keith's shoulder. He was going to tell him, now, now, now..._

“ _Keith-”_

_Shrill alarms blared through the castle and the lights flashed in red._

 

* * *

 

Okay, so apparently he wasn't telling Keith now. Instead he was running down the halls, brushing popcorns from the front of his shirt while simultaneously trying to put on his helmet. Couldn't whoever was in distress picked a less inconvenient moment to suffer from an emergency?

Allura was talking to them through the comms, informing them on the situation.

“A nearby planet is under attack from the galra. They need our help to defend themselves. There's one huge galra cruiser, and I fear we might have to take it down from the inside. The planet's inhabitants are reporting that their weapons aren't making an impact on the hull.

“I'll go in,” Keith said.

“Good. Someone else will have to go to, in case something happens.” Lance saw his chance.

“I'll come with.” There was a hesitant pause.

“Lance? Are you sure?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Okay, then... But it might be best if someone else come, too.”

“In that case there's only two lions defending from the outside," Pidge pointed out.

“I still think it's for the best. It's not a whole fleet, only the cruiser and a couple of small fighters. If you can take down the commands of the ship, the rest will be taken care of. Besides, if Lance goes with Keith in the red lion, I can take Blue and help them. Hunk, you come with them. Pidge, Shiro, we will have to distract the commanders and get them to shoot their ion cannons at you instead of the planet, got it? Coran will provide cover fire from the castle," Allura finished.

“All right, princess. Everyone ready?”

”Hold on, Keith, I'm coming to you then.”

“Yeah, I'll wait. The rest of you can go.”

“Okay then. Let's go.”

Lance had to change direction quite abruptly, but luckily the red lion's hangar wasn't too far away from his own.

Keith was already in his lion when he reached the hangar. The ramp was out, and Lance sprinted up. The door closed behind him, and the red lion was already moving.

“Hold on tight, Lance.”

“Did no one ever think of extra chairs?” Lance muttered, but grabbed the back of Keith's seat and braced himself.

Looking at Keith flying from the outside was a whole other thing than being in the lion. His movements always seemed smooth and effortless, but in the lion, Lance was having a hard time keeping on his feet. Spins and dives were much more impactful on the cockpit than in his own, bigger lion.

“Geez, Keith, how can you fly in this lion every fight? It's as bumpy as the rocky road to Dublin.”

“What? This is normal, Lance.”

“Uh, yeah no, it's not.” Lance was going to answer, but right then, Keith made a deep dive that sent his stomach turning. He took them in under the ship, where the hangar-door that the small fighters flew out from. They were unmanned, and therefor it didn't matter if they 'saw' the red lion, since they did in fact not see anything. It was just a matter of dodging the motion-sensor triggered shots, which Keith did with ease, and proceeded to land his lion in the hangar. Hunk came not long after, parking his lion to their side.

“Okay, come on. We need to find the control central, take out the ones in command before they contact any other fleets and call back the fighters. Got it?” Keith said.

“Got it”, Hunk and Lance repeated. They exited their lions and Keith led the way, into one of the many connected corridors.

“Be quiet. We don't want any additional attention. A room full of commanders is enough, don't you think?”

“Yep, definitely.” Lance opened a link with the rest of the team.

“We're in, you guys. Allura, do you have any idea where the control central should be located?”

It took awhile before her tinny voice came through.

“Try the middle floor. Close to the stern.”

“Got it, thanks.” The three of them proceeded to sneak through the halls. At one point, a couple of guards ran past just feet from there, but they managed to remain unnoticed. Arriving at the door of the control central without further problems, they crouched in a small alcove where they were hidden from sight.

“Okay,” Keith whispered. “This is what we're gonna do. I'm going in with my sword and take down the galra closest to us. You two shoot down the ones that are out of my range. Remember, cover each others' backs. There's only so much I can do with my short-range bayard. Hunk, you'll take care of shutting down the fighters' attacks once we're in the clear.”

“Sounds good. Ready?”

“Ready.” Keith threw himself at the door, prying them open. Lance was right at his heels, and the second he could see in the room he knew that this was going to be harder than any of them had anticipated. There were roughly thirty galras in the central, three times as many as they had counted with. They couldn't stop now, though.

Keith raised his bayard with a roar and launched into a fight with the closest galra. He sliced it's head cleanly off. The thump of it landing on the floor seemed to startle everyone from their temporary shock. The galras were charging toward them, Hunk and Lance was peppering shots nonstop and the red and white flash from Keith's sword was everywhere.

 

* * *

 

As much as he wanted and tried to, Keith couldn't be everywhere. He'd taken down a good third of the enemies, but more were coming in a constant stream, and he had no time to check up on Hunk and Lance to see how they were doing. Ramming his sword through a charging galra and kicking another one in the head, he spun, eyes roaming over them.

They were tired, he saw that much, but none of the blood on their armour belonged to their veins, and there were no cracks in their armour. They were doing surprisingly good. But then the look on Lance's face morphed into one of horror and a scream tore from his mouth.

“Keith! Behind you!” Keith knew he reacted too slow. He could feel it in his bones even before the blow hit. Instead of having time to parry it, he only had time to turn and see an enormous galra swinging its staff. It connected with his side, and his feet actually lifted from the force at the impact.

For a short while he was floating mid-air, and there was no pain. Then he slammed into the wall, and his nerves blossomed up like stoplights. He hit the floor with a thud, his head bouncing against the inside of his helmet. There was ringing in his ears, drowning out any other sound. Flashes of light flared up on the inside of his eyelids, and he squeezed them shut tighter.

Everything was too close, too loud, too sharp. The pain, the sounds, the lights.

 

* * *

 

Lance screamed out a warning, but it was too close. Keith's head connected with the wall with an abhorrent crack, followed by the rest of his body. He collapsed in a heap on the floor.

“Shit!” He couldn't leave the rest of the guards to Hunk, but seeing Keith lying motionless made him wanna drop everything and sprint over to him. Instead he took on the enemies with double the energy as earlier, taking them out quicker than ever.

“Lance, Keith, Hunk, report! What's wrong? Did something happen?” Allura asked through the comms.

“Keith's down,” Lance grit out. “I can't check on him yet. Too many galra.”

“Okay. Okay, just keep calm. Make sure he's all right as soon as possible, and take him to the lions.”

“Yes, Allura.”

When there were only three or four guards left Hunk informed him that he had it under control and that he should go to Keith. Lance didn't bother answer, only let his bayard fall to his side and ran to Keith's side. He rolled over the boy on his back, careful not to rattle him too much. Keith's eyes was shut tightly, but he wasn't unconscious, because he was trying to get up now, pushing himself up on his elbows, writhing away from Lance.

“Keith, Keith! Stay still, you're only going to hurt yourself more. It's me, Lance. Do you hear me, Keith, stay still.” The red paladin stilled, but then he began clawing at his helmet. Too weak to get it off by himself, Lance had to remove it for him. It was cracked where it had met the wall, and Lance winced when he realised exactly how hard the hit must've been.

“Hey, Keith, buddy. You with me?” He lifted the other's head up to rest in his laps. There was blood in Keith's hair, but he couldn't see where the gash was.

 

* * *

 

Keith blinked hard once, twice. Lance's face slowly came into focus above him. His mouth was moving, and shortly after Keith's ears picked up on the sound, but it wasn't synched. It made his head ache even more, and mostly he wanted to close his eyes again. But something told him that was a bad thing to do, so he fought through it.

“Curse your stupid mullet, Keith. I can't see where the blood is coming from.”

“It's not stupid,” he muttered. Lance's face brightened.

“Good, you're responsive!”

“Lance, I might need some help over here,” Hunk intercepted. Keith moved his head a little so that he could see the yellow paladin standing at the control board.

“I don't know anything about programming,” Lance said. “Why can't you ask Pidge?”

“She's busy out there. I can't get to her.”

“I'll help,” Keith interrupted. Lance looked at him incredulously.

“You? What do you know about computers?”

“More than you do,” he grunted and pushed himself up from the floor, until he was standing up. The whole room tilted, and he stumbled before catching himself on the wall. Lance hurried up next to him and steadied him with an arm around his shoulders.

“Hey man, calm down, yeah? You're no good passed out.”

“Okay, yes,” he said impatiently, making his way to the consoles with Lance's help. Hunk was standing in front of them, frowning.

“I think this one is supposed to...” he began, but was interrupted by Pidge.

“Shit, you guys. They are getting reinforcements. Did someone down there manage to contact another outpost?” Keith could feel Lance swerving his head around to check.

“I didn't think anyone... Yeah, sorry, there's one with his hand on the comm link in here. He must've sent out a distress signal. I'm sorry, we didn't notice.”

“No, it's cool,” Pidge grit out. “Just. Unexpected, that's all. If you could hurry up with coming with backup, that would be great.”

“Just a moment. We can't disable the fighters,” Hunk answered.

“That's not the priority right now. We need immediate help out here. Skip the fighters, get to your lions instead,” Allura chimed in. Lance swore between his teeth but nodded to Hunk.

“All right. Come on, Keith. We're getting you back to red.” He nodded, but regretted it as it sent the whole room spinning again. This time though, it didn't stop so easily. He shut his eyes, but that only meant that he had no feeling whatsoever about direction, what was up and what was down. Trying desperately not to, he sagged against Lance.

 

* * *

 

“Goddamnit... Okay, Keith is worse, you guys.”

“Will he be okay?” Shiro asked.

“I hope so. But I might not be able to engage in battle. I don't even know if I can pilot the red lion.”

“You'll have to try. Hunk is needed out here.”

“Shit. Okay.”

They were making their way back to the lions much too slowly for anyone's taste. But Lance constantly had to hoist a practically unresponsive Keith along with him. It wasn't a second too soon that they reached the hangars.

“Sorry, Lance, I really gotta go immediately,” Hunk told him and went for his lion. It left the hangar barely a minute after. Meanwhile, Lance was helping Keith into the cockpit of the red lion. Not even wanting to go as far as to the chair, Lance lowered Keith down onto the floor to lean against the wall.

He gently tapped Keith's cheek, forcing down the fear when he didn't immediately respond.

“Keith, please, open your eyes” To his great relief, they did. They were cloudier than before, and trained on a point slightly to the left of Lance's face.

“Can you tell me what you feel?” he asked.

“I... nauseous. And kinda numb. Head hurts... light, sound... hurts. Can't see good.” Lance swallowed, and willed away the tremor from his voice.

“Okay. Look, this seems like something more serious than a concussion.” He had been talking to the rest of the team, but Keith answered.

“Yeah. Had those before, this is...” He sucked in a breath between his teeth. “Definitely worse.”

“Right. Right, uh, I'm gonna take you to the castle, and we'll get you in a pod. Is that okay?”

Keith didn't answer. His mouth was drawn into a thin white line. And then, suddenly;

“I'm going to be sick.”

“Wha- Fuck, okay, yeah.” He quickly moved away to Keith's side. He opened his mouth to speak, but lurched to the side and threw up instead. He was bracing his arms on the floor, but they were shaking, and Lance grabbed his shoulders from behind. He rubbed his hand up and down Keith's back.

“It's okay, it's okay. You're gonna be just fine, Keith.

“Lance. What's going on?” Shiro asked through the helmets.

“Keith is not doing too good. I'm taking him back to the castle.

“What are his symptoms?”

“Uh, headache, sensitive to light and sound, vision problems, numbness and nausea. He threw up.”

“Numbness?” Shiro repeated.

“Yes? Why?”

“I... It might be nothing, but the rest of the symptoms could be from a concussion...”

“Keith says it's not. He's had those before, accordingly.”

“That's what I fear.”

“Numbness is a symptom of a subarachnoid hemorrhage, is it not?” Pidge asked sounding concerned.

“A what?” Lance asked.

“Subarachnoid hemorrhage. SAH for short. It's a condition where bleeding occurs in the space between the brain and the tissue that covers it. It causes pressure to build up.”

“Are you sure? I don't know if it's that serious.”

“It could be a less serious one, where the pressure build up slowly. It can still be very dangerous, though, if it keeps increasing.”

Keith, having recovered slightly from his bout of nausea, groaned.

“Where are we?” Lance's brow furrowed.

“We're in the red lion, Keith, remember?”

“He doesn't know where he is?” Pidge asked urgently.

“No, I... I don't know, you guys. I don't know what to do.”

“If it's a SAH, you need to take him to the castle immediately.”

“I hope it's not, but okay. I'll take him there. Anything else?”

“Make sure he's in a safe place where he won't fall over and that he knows what is going in. We don't want him to panic.”

“Okay. Okay, it's fine.” He clicked off his comms, concentrating on Keith.

“Right buddy, I'm taking us to the castle.” He managed to get Keith over to the piloting chair, where he positioned him between it and the consoles. He kept one hand by Keith's neck, keeping his head steady. Laying his other hand on the controls, he closed his eyes.

 _Hey, Red? Lance here. Your paladin really needs to get to the castle, but he can't pilot right now, so uh... Could you maybe let me do it?_ Something purred in his mind. It was much hotter than Blue's presence, and smelled like cinnamon.

_Take care of my cub._

The controls lit up and Lance sighed in relief.

“Thank god,” he muttered.

He tried to pilot the red lion as smoothly as possible, but he wasn't used to her controls, and even then, he was forced to dodge stray blasters from the fight now and then. His every muscle was tensed to their limit; his body rigid like a metal staff. When they finally reached the castle's hangar, he thought he would pass out from relief.

Standing up, he gently coaxed Keith from his position on the floor.

“Come on Keith, we're here now. We're at the ca-” Keith's eyes rolled back into his head, and his body went stiff.

“No, no, no, no” He turned him on his side as he began convulsing, neck rigid. A seizure.

“Fuck, stop, no, don't do this Keith, don't do this. You can't leave me, you hear me? You can't leave, not when I... You can't leave." He couldn't do anything but plead as Keith shook on the floor. Holding him down would only make it worse. But then his body slackened again, and it was too still, too still. Chest not heaving, lips not moving. Lungs not expanding. 

"No, no, Keith, don't! You don't get to do this! You don't get to leave me, not when I... Not when I love you.” he whispered. Some tiny, stupid part o him thought that maybe, maybe the other would wake up as he uttered the magic words. Stupid, of course. Keith didn't move. 

He held Keith to his chest, crying softly. He knew he should do something to help, something, whatever he could. But all his composure was gone, and he was left with tears and not much more.

He vaguely recognised the door of the red lion opening, and then Coran was there, prying Keith away from him, but he didn't want to let go, he couldn't let go, because if he did, Keith would die, for real.

In the end, he couldn't hold on either.

 

* * *

 

Keith knew instantly that he'd been in a pod, the second he woke up. He was freezing and exhausted, the two most instant symptoms of cryo-sleep. But he didn't think his body was supposed to ache as much as it did after just have healed. His whole body was sore, as if he was covered in bruises. As he took all of this in, he also realised he was falling. Struggling to get his legs underneath him, he stumbled forward on the ground. Someone caught his shoulders and sat him down on some sort of ledge.

“Keith? Can you hear me?”

“Yes I bloody can, you're screaming in my face” he murmured, hands coming up to rub his eyes.

“Rude,” someone said. Lance. He opened his eyes and met the others blue eyes. “Are you okay?” Keith made a face and rolled his shoulders.

“Mostly?” Lance cracked a smile.

“You look like shit.”

“Well, thank you.”

“You're welcome.” His face took on a more serious look. 

"Actually, though. Are you all right?"

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be, after a pod?" Lance sucked in a breath between his teeth.

"How... How much do you remember?" Keith shrugged.

"Pretty much everything up until..." He stopped. "...until the red lion." A horrible feeling had come over him, and he knew, he knew what had happened but he couldn't believe it.

"Lance... Did I die?" Lance sniffled, lips quivering. But he still answered.

"You had a seizure. Your heart, it stopped. But Coran got it working again. You won't have any sustaining injuries, but... But yeah. Technically, you were dead." His voice shook, and despite himself, Keith pulled him in for a hug.

"Thank you for telling me," he muttered into the other's shoulder."

Lance chuckled wetly.

"Yeah, man. Of course." Lance pulled away from the hug, giving him a soft smile.

“Come on, I bet you're starving. The others are in the kitchen.” Keith stood up with him and nodded. 

 

Hunk was standing at the counter, stirring in a pot. Pidge was sat on the table, clicking away on her computer. Allura and Coran both sat by it on chairs. Shiro stood up the second they entered the door.

“Keith!” He got wrapped in a hug by his older brother.

“Hi,” he said, muffled against Shiro's shoulder. Hunk was next, and Keith actually thought he felt his ribs shift under the pressure when the yellow paladin hugged him. He coughed awkwardly and tried to play it off as he was thirsty.

 

* * *

 

 

Ten minutes later he was sat at the table, spooning some sort of noodles from a bowl of broth. (Chicken noodle soup! Hunk beamed).

“So, how much do you remember?” Pidge asked. Keith frowned and bit his lip. “I knew we were fighting the guards in the control room, but after that it's blurry. I can recall snippets, like walking back to the lions and...” His eyes darted to look at Lance for the slightest of a second. “stuff like that,” he continued.

“Well, Lance took you to the castle, but you had a seizure... It sounded really scary.”

“What exactly happened with my head, then?”

“It was like Pidge thought, a SAH, but luckily not an overly severe one.”

“It felt pretty goddamn severe when he wasn't breathing on the floor,” Lance muttered.

Allura rubbed his arm.

“You did great, Lance.”

“Thank you. For helping me.” Lance looked surprised at that.

“You don't need to thank me. I did what anyone would have.” Keith shrugged.

“Still.”

Pidge let out a lengthy groan.

“Oh my god, please, end the suspense. Do you remember or not?”

“Remember what?” Keith asked as Lance swore.

“Pidge, for fuck's sake, if you don't shut up-”

“Lance told you he loved you.” Keith stared at her.

“ _What?_ ”

“He,” she pointed at Lance. “Told you,” she prodded a finger at his chest. “He loves you.”

“You did that?” he screeched at Lance.

“Well, yeah! Sorry for confessing my feelings when I thought you were dying. Yes, I love you. Sue me!” Lance shouted back, heaving in a deep breath once he was done.

“You... You have feelings for me?” Keith asked in a much smaller voice.

“I mean... yeah. Yeah, I do.” Keith tried desperately from stopping the grin from spreading on his features. Lance sighed.

“Look, Pidge. You were wrong, and now he's laughing at me, and-”

“I'm not laughing at you. I'm happy. That's all.”

“...Happy?”

“Look, Lance. You were wrong, and now he loves you,” Pidge mocked. They both ignored her.

“Oh.” Lance blushed as he took it in.

“Finally.” Pidge rolled her eyes.

“You knew I liked him?” Keith asked her.

“Dude. You couldn't have been more obvious.” Well, then. There went the illusion that he thought he'd been pretty subtle in his pining.

“If I am so goddamn obvious, it won't matter if I do this.” He stood up, leaned over the table and kissed Lance. It was short and sweet, and Keith could feel Lance's lips curve up in a smile by the time they broke apart.

“I like you, Lance.”

Lance beamed brightly, and in that moment, he was the most beautiful boy Keith had ever seen. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So that's it for now! Hope you liked it; leave a comment or some kudos if you did (or why not both!) 
> 
> Shameless selfpromo:  
> Instagram: @nerd_beyond_limits  
> I make shitty drawings, so check it out if you're into that


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